Dubai Airshow: Air Arabia expand fleet in Morocco and Egypt

Air Arabia has unveiled plans to expand into new markets, as it signed a lease on six new Airbus A321neo long range aircrafts in a deal valued in excess of US$2.79 billion at current list prices.

The new aircraft will be leased on an eight-year deal with US-based Air Lease Corporation (ALC). They will be added to the Sharjah-based airline’s existing fleet of 50 aircraft, based out of five regional hubs in the UAE’s Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah as well as Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. Their eight-hour flying range will give the airline capacity to expand into new markets including South East Asia, Eastern Europe and the wider African continent.

Speaking as he signed the deal, Air Arabia Group CEO, Adel Al Ali, commented: “To expand a business, you don’t always need to order aircraft. The addition of these A321new LR aircraft allow us to expand our service to longer range destinations and helps offer more flexibility on our existing high density routes. We look forward to receiving the new aircraft in 2019 as we continue to offer our customers an excellent product with more destinations to discover.”

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts the global airline industry net profit to be $35.5 billion in 2019, slightly ahead of the $32.3 billion expected net profit in 2018 (revised down from $33.8 billion forecast

The Moroccan Airports Authority (ONDA) partnered with National Aviation Services (NAS) to launch the first electronic gates (E-gates) at the Pearl Lounge in the Marrakech Menara Airport departures area. This is the first of its kind

Precision Air has confirmed that its flight PW 722 from Nairobi via Kilimanjaro to Mwanza operated by one of its ATR- 72 aircraft was involved in a bird strike yesterday as it was making the final approach and landing at Mwanza Airport.